Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP) has developed an oral healthcare test service for home-based, self-administered, periodontal, or gum checks. This latest service has been developed under the supervision of Professor Yuichi Izumi, of the Medical Hospital, Tokyo Medical and Dental University. And it is a mail-based service consisting of a test kit, containing a tube used to recover saliva, and an oral healthcare questionnaire. The tube is posted to the test center, where it is checked for gum and oral health, a report on which is forwarded to the user, along with an oral healthcare guidebook. The new service will commence from October 10, with catalogue mail-order sales from Halmek Corporation.

Service Background

According to Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) Survey of Dental Diseases 2011, some 80% of Japanese people suffer from gum diseases. These account for in excess of 40% of cases in tooth loss, reports the 8020 Promotion Foundation, so called because it encourages Japanese people to keep 20 or more of their own teeth until the age of 80. Given the lack of subjective symptoms, however many cases of gum diseases become serious, and require long-term treatment, or the payment of expensive medical fees, according to a survey by the MHLW Health Insurance Bureau.

Recent research has highlighted the connection between gum diseases and such lifestyle diseases as diabetes, myocardial infarction, otherwise referred to as arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. In order to ascertain the status of gum diseases, it is recommended that direct tests be conducted by a dental health professional, but dental examination rates for Japanese people are low, according to The Japanese Society of Periodontology. This has led to calls for a convenient method that would allow consumers to become aware of the status of their own gums.

DNP in conjunction with Professor Izumi has, from 2014, been engaged in the development of a new testing technology that would allow consumers to perform home-based gum tests, in a simple and convenient manner. In this latest move, the partners have developed a decision logic that reveals the gum and general oral healthcare status on a level equivalent to that of a direct check up by a dental health professional. This is based on an oral health questionnaire to be filled out by the user, and gene analysis technology-driven counts of periodontal disease bacteria in the saliva that are the cause of gum disease. The new kit makes it possible for users to collect saliva, themselves, at home in a simple and convenient manner.

DNP is now pleased to announce the development of the test kit, service infrastructure, along with the launch of the DNP Oral Healthcare Service.

New Service

Consumers may purchase the newly developed kit via mail-order sites or over-the-counter at pharmacies.

Consumers collect saliva using the enclosed tube, reply to the lifestyle-based questionnaire, and post these in a dedicated envelope.

The test center produces a gum and oral healthcare report based on the saliva samples and questionnaire results, and returns these to the user along with an oral healthcare guidebook.

The report and guidebook are designed to elicit user visits to dental healthcare professionals and to improve their oral healthcare, and will lead to the prevention or early detection and treatment of gum disease

Looking Ahead

The test kit will be initially launched on a mail-order basis, from Halmek Corporation on October 10, 2016 and the DNP operated pharmaceutical goods mail-order service, MediChoice from November 1.

For further information, in Japanese only, regarding Medichoice please visit http://www.mchoice.jp/ (Only available in Japanese)

DNP plans to pioneer new sales routes, including dental clinics, maternity clinics, pharmacies, and drugstores. Looking ahead, DNP is aiming for improved prevention of diseases through preventative medicine, and will promote the development and provision of various products that contribute to the extension of a healthy lifespan.

DNP aims for sales of 500 million yen by 2020.

Professor Izumi's research team announced the decision logic at the American Academy of Periodontology, 101st Annual Meeting, held in November 2015. Similar announcements were made at the 59th Autumn Meeting of the Japanese Society of Periodontology on October 7 and 8, 2016.

* Please note that test service results are derived using statistical methodology, and should not be considered as a substitute for direct check-ups by a dental healthcare professional.

* Product prices, specification and service contents mentioned in this news release are current as of the date of publication. They may be changed at any time without notice.